We were lucky to catch up with Genevieve Gray recently and have shared our conversation below.

Genevieve, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Is there a lesson you learned in school that’s stuck with you and has meaningfully impacted your journey?

Definitely! My higher education journey was long and tumultuous, so let me start with some context. I graduated high school in 2018 with a 4.0 and almost a dozen APs under my belt. I’ve always been an artist at heart but was pressured by my family into thinking that pursuing a degree/career in art would be a waste of my intelligence. As such, I enrolled at the University at Buffalo for biology, too afraid of becoming the classic “starving artist” to pursue a creative field. My first year of biology was also my last – the university’s biology professor completely turned me off from the program in its entirety. After that, I tried for two more years to make computer science work. By the end of the first year, I hated CS too and was fully planning to just stick it out for a cushy job and a six-figure salary.

COVID hit Buffalo hard during that second year of computer science, and from the isolated prison that was my apartment bedroom (all 3 of my roommates had COVID at the time), I realized I was miserable. I called my mom to tell her I was coming back to Rochester to pursue art. She thought I was out of my mind; I started packing that very same day.

I graduated from Nazareth University with a design degree and a 4.0 this past May. During my short two-year stay at Nazareth, I won an award in the student show for a painting and a local (Rochester) silver ADDY award for a design project. I made much better relationships with my professors in a semester at NAZ than I had in three years at UB. I left Nazareth excited to continue my part-time design job and eager to begin applying to full-time positions in the field.

The lesson that took me five years and thousands in debt to learn is this: don’t let others decide your future. Do what you love and don’t be afraid to take that leap. If you truly love it and want to succeed, you will learn. My only regret after my five years of college is that I didn’t spend all five at Nazareth.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m Genevieve (she/they) and I’m a recently graduated designer and artist from Upstate New York. I started life as an art kid and after 23 years of intense trial and error, I find myself working in the design industry and freelancing under my own brand, Roana Art and Design, where I offer graphic design and/or branding and illustration services (find me at roanaartanddesign.com). Freelancing allows me the variety of clientele and subject matter that I thrive on and helps create close, individual connections.

My personal design style is modern, clean, and colorful with a feminist and environmentalist flair, combined with illustrative aspects from my fine arts background. My design work has spanned multiple industries including sports, healthcare, and retail, and I pride myself on my versatility and technical skill. I love to learn and plan to continue to expand my knowledge and services into different areas like website design, UI/UX, and marketing.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

The best way I’ve found to grow clientele is to know people and tell everyone what you do. Everyone you know – your friends, your father-in-law, past or present co-workers, someone you had a college class with – could lead you to a possible client. In my case, it was someone I played video games with. It can be anyone! Nurture your connections and make new ones. Let those people know what you do and that you’re open to opportunities. Try your best to make sure people don’t walk away from you with a bad taste in their mouth. You don’t need hundreds or thousands of followers to attract clients – word of mouth is often worth so much more.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

There are so many resources I wish I had known about when I was younger. Even with the power of the internet and social media, there are still some hidden gems out there.

1. Google Fonts and Google Icons (fonts.google.com/icons) – You probably know about Google Fonts, but Google Icons gives you access to free SVG, PNG, and CSS icons, like the full-screen symbol or keyboard voice symbol.

2. Milanote – I found this pretty recently and I’m in love; Milanote is a visually based planning site. It even comes with templates for creative projects built in. Plan a site map, creative brief, onboarding process – you name it!

3. Mr. Mockups – This site offers a variety of free and paid mockups, and even the free ones are for personal and commercial use.

4. Pose Maniacs – On the illustrative side of things, I’d recommend www.posemaniacs.com and its huge selection of poses.

5. Social Media – Find other creators in your niche! They’ll usually have some tips to share on making content or tools they use. (One of my favorite design accounts is instagram.com/piggzdesign)

Contact Info:

• Website: roana.artanddesign.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Roana.Arts/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/genevieve-gray-roanaarts/
• Other: https://linktr.ee/roana.arts